In the beginning

...there was an idea. Not my idea, mind you. Credit for that goes to Seth Godin, who's book Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck? And Other Provocations (2006-2012)¹ helped me to solve a puzzle that's been, for lack of a better word - puzzling - me for a long time.

When it comes to writing, consistently putting pen to paper - or digits to keys - is fundamental to ones development. This is often much easier said than done, however, and the lethal combination of laziness and lack of motivation are common co-conspirators in de-railing a once-enthusiastic wordsmith from their prosaic pilgrimage.

I've always loved to write, but my relationship with inspiration has been very on-again, off-again. A number of solutions have been suggested - the most appealing being the 600-words-per-day challenge, whereby what you write is irrelevant, just that you aim to reach that word count each and every day. My problem with this strategy is the lack of a central theme - there's no end to the possible topics to choose from, which is possibly why it makes settling on one so difficult.

The length itself also also becomes a concern. Perhaps this is just laziness speaking, but obligating myself to hit 600 words every day becomes quite tiresome. I hate to feel as though writing is a chore.

This is where Seth and a short blog-post from the mid 2000's came in. He had a suggestion that really resonated with me. While still tasking oneself with a daily written submission, Seth has seemingly circumvented the age-old issue of writers block, or at the very least, fashioned a path through the middle of it.

I'd like to think that most of us aren't simply approaching life with a "mail-it-in" attitude, and at the very least we're showing some sort of engagement with the world around us each and every day. By navigating life with our eyes open, we're exposed to endless sources of information, stimulation and inspiration, and with this stimulus come constant opportunities for learning.

Occasionally, our waking hours for the day are chock-full of new information, and we go to bed that night feeling like a different person. Every once in a while, we encounter a nugget of gold that changes our perspective or sets us on an entirely new course. Some days may just be the same old mundane routine, with little in the way of foreign input. Each day of existence varies so wildly, but a common link exists. From the profound, life-altering discoveries to the days where the lesson is simply realising that for the first 25 years of your life, you've been spelling 'definitely' wrong - every day we learn something.

And that's the link. That's what we're going to write about:

What I learned today.

¹ https://www.sethgodin.com/